Local production firm lights up big screen in NYC
Shawnee Dispatch, March 18, 2008

One Shawnee business recently got the ultimate chance to advertise its services on the world’s largest stationary video screen.

Digital Eye Studio, 12510 W. 62nd Terr., Ste. 106, created a video that last month was shown on the seven-story NASDAQ Tower in Times Square. For Digital Eye, which develops video productions, 3D animations and print and Web design, it is a crowning achievement in what has been a remarkable first year for the company.

The six-employee firm was created when a group of friends who had all worked for other, similar companies came together.

“We decided we all had talents that helped each other out, and we decided it was time to step out on our own,” said Stan Jones, president. Each employee brought their own clients and expertise to the business. Jones said the company focused on providing all methods of promotion for a business under one roof, making convenience and service its main goal.

“Some high quality places aren’t very helpful — they don’t help clients decide what they need,” Jones said.

Michael Millhollen, creative director, said many other similar companies also will contract services out or simply won’t be able to provide all of the services.

“So if somebody has a marketing need, they can come to us and we’ll get it done,” Millhollen said.

The benefit of doing all marketing products under one roof is all advertising materials will have the same look and flow together, whether it’s a commercial, Web site or print ad, and Digital Eye acts as a project manager for its clients.

“Every business needs what we can offer,” Jones said.

Jones said Digital Eye currently tends to offer lower prices than most of its competitors, as well.

“It’s a very convenient system for the clients, and they don’t have to go through the problem of using multiple companies,” Millhollen said. “...It may be something as simple as getting their Web site in a search engine or something really cool, like 3-D animation for a commercial.”

Digital Eye grew quickly, and the Shawnee office is the third for the company in the last year, though it hopes to stay for a while longer. Jones said Digital Eye chose Shawnee because of its central location for its clients throughout Johnson County and in Kansas City, Mo., and the close-by amenities.

“There’s a good selection of restaurants we can take clients to, or we can even go to Falcon Ridge (Lenexa) to golf,” Millhollen added.

Now the company has produced marketing materials for three national television shows, including “The American Outdoorsman,” and is working with the University of Kansas Hospital on video editing and motion graphics. The firm’s work also can be seen on the digital ad screens at Oak Park Mall.

The opportunity for Digital Eye’s video to be played in Times Square came for one of its clients, Digital Ally of Overland Park, which develops, manufactures and markets advanced video surveillance products for law enforcement, homeland security and commercial security applications.

The company was invited to ring the opening bell Feb. 28 in celebration of its listing on the NASDAQ Capital Market, and it asked Digital Eye to develop a video to play on the big Times Square screen. But Digital Eye is used to working on tight deadlines.

“So it wasn’t a very difficult thing for us to crank that video out, which we did in a span of two weeks,” Millhollen said.

Digital Eye is planning for more growth.

“We’ll definitely be bigger in a year, the question is how much,” Millhollen said. “We’ll grow as big as we need to.”

Digital Eye’s video is being replayed on its Web site at www.digitaleyeinc.com on the promotional video page. The company can be contacted at (913) 631-6744.